Sri Lanka's monsoon floods were subsiding but just over 40,000 people remained in temporary shelters, the disaster management centre said Tuesday.



©AFP
Sri Lankan school children wade through flooded streets, January 2007. Sri Lanka's monsoon floods were subsiding but just over 40,000 people remained in temporary shelters, the disaster management centre has said.

More than 210,000 people were initially affected by the floods, with 40,225 of them remaining in schools, temples and other public buildings, and receiving food from state agencies, the centre said.

The authorities began restoring supplies to several hospitals which were affected by the floods, officials said.

Sri Lanka relies on monsoon rains for irrigation and power generation but the seasonal downpours frequently cause loss of life and damage to property in low-lying areas.

No deaths have been reported in the latest rains.

The island's two main monsoon seasons run from May to September and December to February.